My 7 weeks on Atkins - OWL 1

[kacey1]

Thank goodness - I saw a loss this week! And a pretty good loss in inches as well. But it was HARD to move up to OWL. I have worked hard and spent LOTS and LOTS of hours trying to get my percentages correct and adding in the veggies I've needed to add. I'm gonna stay on OWL 1 for another week to try to get the hang of it.

(thanks for the help everyone - and all the ideas!)

Here's the problem I'm (still) struggling with...
I should be lowering my percentages so that I get 60% fat, 30% protein, 10% carbs. This is HARD (and hard work). I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon (and I'm going to cook up a load of stuff in advance but that doesn't change the total time, just the daily time).

Example:
Breakfast - 2 eggs - medium, 2 slices turkey bacon, 1 tbsp cooked onion & 1 tbsp cooked bell pepper, 1/4 cup cucumbers. Percentages (fat/pro/carb) 58 / 33/ 9. (To get to this percentage, I've changed from large eggs to medium, skipped regular bacon, omitted butter and used Pam, and added in all the veggies - thus increasing the time.)

Lunch - Chicken Salad on 1/2 cup lettuce (2 oz. chicken breast, stalk of celery, 2 tbsp onion, 2 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tsp mustard, 1 piece bacon) Percentages: 71 / 24/ 5. (Boo! - omitting bacon 70 / 25 /5 still not good).

Snack - Low carb Flax muffin: Percentage 70 / 11 / 15 / 4 (alcohol from extract) (best flax I can find - 5 carbs - 3 of fiber)

Snack - Olives - 6 large - Percentage 92 / 8 / 0. (or maybe a bite of cheese, or maybe a hard boiled egg - same kind of percentages)

Dinner - Ground pork (danish dish - mixed with pork rinds, egg, seasoning, and fried in a bit of butter) 3 ounces, Cabbage - 1/2 cup, Tomato - 1 whole, Cucumbers - 1/2 cup Percentage 61 / 32 / 7. (not bad)

Total for day: 65/27/7. Calories - 1392. (If I add in a serving of Veg Soup - (canned tomato, chicken bouillon, onion, celery, cauliflower) then I can get to 64 / 27/ 9).

OK - so I've taken away regular bacon, frying in butter, no cheese, no cream, cut down my meat portions, and I still can't get to 60% fat. And honestly, I like a bit of cheese, a bit of butter or cream. Nothing excessive - but a bit. Or a Mock Danish or ...

Am I being pedantic here? I want to get a daily habit of doing it right so I can move on to dairy (yogurt, cottage cheese!). But I want to have the foundation right - and stable - before I move on.

I want to eat this way intuitively - but that is going to take lots of practice. I'm willing to make the effort - just need a little (lot) of guidance!

On the exercise front, I managed to burn off 2,679 calories this week in extra exercise. I hit my goal of swimming 1 mile without stopping (which for me was 1 LONG hour of swimming but I'll get faster one day... ). Weights twice a week, Pilates - 3 times a week, biking - 3 times a week, walking - 2 times, and swimming - 2 times. Whew... (plus my stability ball exercises! Thanks Saty!)

Overall - still losing, getting easier (not missing anything really), and the inches are moving also. Hubby still following diet (he's lost 6.5 kg in 4 weeks - annoying men!). He still contends he's going back to his 'real' way of eating when he loses the pounds he has to lose - but we'll see!

Again thanks for the support guys. I realised that the 6 - 9 week range is where I usually give up on a diet. (because of lack of progress, boredom, and no support) I'm not having that problem right now - thank goodness. And I keep telling myself - NEXT year at this time I'll be SO GLAD I didn't give up!

Kacey

[Jasmain]

Re: My 7 weeks on Atkins - OWL 1

Grats on the loss this week, and kudos for all your hard work at trying to get this thing down to a science! Will be a bit before I am comfortable giving advice out on how to get those percentages close, but I'm so proud of you for working so hard!

[not2late]

Re: My 7 weeks on Atkins - OWL 1

On rung 1 when you add that additional 5 net carbs of veg, you just need to keep your fat intake the same as it was during Induction. For example, during Induction you had a total of 3 tablespoons of fat (butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, cream,etc.) in your daily menu. Rung 1 OWL, keep that amount of added fat the same. That tiny bit of carbs will be enough to "lower" the percentage slightly---possibly 0.5 or 1%.

When you move to the dairy rung, you'll need to adjust your added fat intake because the additional dairy you add will contain fat. So you can opt to eat 1 less serving of the hard, aged cheeses or you can opt to drop a 1/2 to 1 serving of added fat. For example, you choose to add 5 net carbs of ricotta cheese to your Rung 2 menu and you've been eating 3 ounces of the hard aged cheeses and using 3 tablespoons of added fat daily. So either you remove 1/2 to 1 ounce of that hard cheese or remove 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of the added fat. If you want to eat all your cheese and eat all the added fat, then opt for 'leaner' cuts of meat, such as fish, that day.

You do the same thing during the nut-seed rung because nuts and seeds are high fat. So they can replace a serving of added fat.

[kacey1]

Re: My 7 weeks on Atkins - OWL 1

OK - I'm getting it? Maybe ?

So for dairy rung - instead of an ounce of cheddar I can have some yogurt (for example). On the nut rung, instead of cooking in butter, use Pam, and have 15 almonds (or some such).

That helps. Thanks Megs!

Kacey

[not2late]

Re: My 7 weeks on Atkins - OWL 1

Yeah, but use your fitday.com account and play with your menues. It takes very little added fat to change the percentages dramatically. I make a type of savory bean paste and when I was developing it, I was pretty surprized to see that adding 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil to it, increased it's fat percentage to 75%!

So use the fitday account to see how these fat amounts affect the meals you eat. I don't use fitday to track my carbs, but I use it to see what a food will do to my daily menu. That helps because then I can say to myself "Okay, if I add ______, then I should cut back on ______." after a while, you'll get the feel of adding or subtracting amounts without having to constantly check the menues. <-----That's eating in the "real world".